Egg containers of all kinds have been developed for the transportation and sale of frangible items such as eggs. As eggs are relatively fragile, the egg containers must protect the eggs from the various manipulations involved from the packaging of the eggs to the consumer's refrigerator.
One significant improvement in egg containers is the use of thermoformed plastics as material for the egg containers. Thermoformed plastics are typically transparent, which allows the eggs to be visible, and are relatively inexpensive to produce. As they can inspect the eggs by seeing through the material of the egg container, the consumers do not need to open the egg container, as is the case with cardboard egg containers, for instance. In the case of cardboard boxes, it may occur that the boxes are not closed properly after inspection. This may cause the breakage of eggs if the improperly closed egg container is subsequently manipulated by another consumer.
One of the advantages with containers of thermoformed plastics pertains to the stacking of the containers in an open position. Containers in the open position may be nested one into the other to form stacks requiring a relatively small volume when compared to stacks of closed containers. However, the separation of containers nested one into the other is often performed by automated equipment. Accordingly, containers must have components to ensure that stacks of open containers are upright. Moreover, an equidistant spacing between a plurality of open containers nested one into the other facilitates their separation by the automated equipment.